More Polo Panhandling

Councilwoman (and candidate) Linda Milhaven is doing more tongue tap dancing via the latest article on polo pusher Jason Rose on AZCentral today, and the $75,000 taxpayer funding gift he received from the City of Scottsdale for his annual polo match.

Councilwoman Linda Milhaven said the city receives a direct benefit that is greater in the case of the polo event.

“If the city is essentially buying an event, it’s getting an event,” she said.

Milhaven said events like Horses and Horsepower need “a couple of years to catch on.”

I think Milhaven should check with the city attorney’s office for definition of direct “consideration” (not “benefit” as she misstated). Direct consideration is what’s guaranteed by the contract, nothing more.

As for Jason Rose’s assertion

“It’s voter approved (funds). It’s not some willy-nilly deal.”

That is (to use Rose’s own words), a “gross inaccuracy.” The voters approved the bed tax and the general concept of ‘destination event marketing.’ The voters did NOT approve funding a polo match with tax dollars. Mayor Jim Lane, and incumbent council candidates Milhaven and Dennis Robbins did that.

And as Beth Duckett reports:

[Scottsdale Mayor Jim] Lane, who supported the contribution [to Rose’s polo event] along with all six council members, had hired Rose as a consultant in his re-election campaign for mayor in 2012.

Now what’s our budget deficit? Debt? How many millions of dollars of capital improvement and maintenance have we deferred?